Synchronization Modes

Under SunOS, a write operation succeeds when the system ensures that
all written data is readable after any subsequent open of the file. This check
assumes no failure of the physical storage medium. Data is successfully transferred
for a read operation when an image of the data on the physical storage medium
is available to the requesting process. An I/O operation is complete when
the associated data has been successfully transferred, or when the operation
has been diagnosed as unsuccessful.

For reads, the operation has been completed, or diagnosed
if unsuccessful. The read is complete only when an image of the data has been
successfully transferred to the requesting process. If the synchronized read
operation is requested when pending write requests affect the data to be
read, these write requests are successfully completed before the data is read.

For writes, the operation has been completed, or diagnosed
if unsuccessful. The write operation succeeds when the data specified in the
write request is successfully transferred. Furthermore, all file system information
required to retrieve the data must be successfully transferred.

File attributes that are not necessary for data retrieval
are not transferred prior to returning to the calling process.